I completed Amanda Rose’s survey for raw milk drinkers, and could only marvel that this effort might be considered controversial. With no slight intended to Amanda, because the survey is an interesting effort, what I am suggesting is that its thrust mainly underscores the paucity of information about raw milk.
The most interesting part of the survey is a list of statements about raw milk, which respondents are supposed to rate for accuracy, for example:
“Raw milk does not contain pathogens if the cows (or goats) are on grass-based diets.”
“Raw milk kills babies.”
“Raw milk contains deadly pathogens.”
“Raw milk is a food that is uniquely safe.”
“Raw cow milk is as safe as raw human breast milk.”
While I have my opinions on certain statements, I have to say that I don’t have the drop-dead research to support some of the statements–for example, milk from grass-fed animals doesn’t support pathogens. We can debate such questions, but there is definitely a research void.
If, as some sources have suggested, something on the order of three million Americans are consuming raw milk, why isn’t the government at least interested in learning more about their habits and attitudes?
The problem is that the government isn’t interested in learning more. While a number of raw milk proponents have been critical of the American Veterinary Medical Association for seeming to exclude prominent raw milk backers at its July session on the subject, I want to credit the AVMA organizers of the raw milk session. By promoting original research on raw milk, they have taken an important step—one that even raw milk proponents haven’t been super aggressive on. The most notable effort on the research front by proponents was the project in Michigan to measure lactose intolerance, which obtained support from the Weston A. Price Foundation. (link)
The reality is that research like Amanda’s is more threatening to the FDA’s dairy czar John Sheehan and lackeys than any kind of confrontation with Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation or MarkMcAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. (with due respect to them, I’m not being critical of their desire to be part of the AVMA symposium; I also know that, based on recent experiences at both the International Association for Food Prorection and the National Conference on Intersate Milk Shipments sessions, all raw milk proponents would be super-respectful).
This survey will develop important information, most likely reaffirming what most raw milk drinkers already know from their personal experiences– that raw milk can be produced safely, and has important nutritional benefits. That’s exactly why the scientific and health establishments fear such research efforts so much.
I looked through the survey, but did not complete it since I am not a raw dairy consumer. The survey is aksing about the perceptions and attitudes of raw milk consumers (the ones that choose to complete it).
I’m not knocking it, but be aware that TPTB will see this as an opinion survey, it is not proof of benefits or safety. There are stereotypes of raw milk consumers – I wonder if this survey will reaffirm those stereotypes, or reveal some surprises or new insights about why people choose to include raw dairy in their diet (or their children’s diet).
If you want to know how and why raw milk and bacteria biodiversity works to build human immunity…then you must see this excellently done 10 minute video.
This is "Bacteriosapien Raw Milk 101" for everyone.
CP, FDA and John Sheehan please tune in. This is the science you always suggest that we find to prove our case….well here it is.
This is life on earth at its most basic level. It is why and how bacteria works to build immunity.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/bonnie_bassler.html
Mark
Nonetheless, Amanda’s survey is a great way to document the changing opinion of raw milk consumption. Let’s work to get her loads of respondents.
Ruth Ann Foster
The information will be certainly rejected by the FDA and others who stand to benefit from the status quo. But the information will get out, and those who don’t drink raw milk currently will have another resource to be exposed to the truth…and even more incentive to take their health back from Big Dairy/Pharma serving governmental bodies (the liars).
Opinions matter…and as more get to drink it…opinions will change…and a tipping point will eventually come (and that’s what they fear).
This isn’t about the TRUTH. Its about POLITICS, and POWER, and MONEY, and CONTROL of the food supply.
I agree that opinions matter and like the survey, was just commenting on the limitations. It would be interesting to conduct a second survey of regulators, inspectors, and public health staff regarding their opinions; I wonder if the responses would all lean toward an extreme anti-raw milk stance, or if there would be more of a spectrum of opinions about it safety, consumer choice, regulatory approaches, etc. Often the only opinion that anyone hears is that of the extremists, thus opinion surveys are useful because they include those that are not in the spotlight (if done successfully and participation is high).
About the bacterial quorum sensing (which I linked to a couple of posts ago):
Since it just takes a few cells for pathogens like E. coli to cause disease, one wonders if susceptible hosts might be already carrying a sub-clinical population of pathogens. If just a few more are added from a source, disease then occurs in those people but not in the rest of the consuming population, since a critical mass is reached and the bacteria signal each other and "agree" to produce an endotoxin.
I was surprised to see how similar those chemical signals were, BTW.
FEAST ON THE HILL LANCASTER FARMING
Way to Policymaker’s Heart Through Their Stomach by Linda Voss
HMMM thats not the route lobbyist take is it?
http://lancasterfarming.com/node/1898
Drugs On Tap [and more]] by John Nash
Very disturbing read. Any criminal acts here?
http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2365
"Gov’t wants to change virus’ name from ‘swine flu’
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) American agriculture officials want to change the name for the virus that’s broken out in Mexico and the U.S. from "swine flu" to something else.
The problem, they say, is that the name "swine flu" suggests a problem with pork products.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points out that the virus is not food-borne and has nothing to do with consuming pork products."
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/4/28/2243/28892
"Today the Mexican Health Secretary, Jos ngel Crdova, reported that tests now prove that a four-year-old boy contracted swine flu in the La Gloria community of Veracruz state, where that community has been protesting pollution from a CAFO that isn’t so confined. These tests now put the start date for the swine flu epidemic at least two weeks earlier than the first death previously confirmed by the Mexican government and more importantly begins to pinpoint the start of the epidemic in La Gloria. The CAFO is run by Granjas Carroll de Mxico which is a joint venture of Agroindustrias Unidas de Mxico and Smithfield Foods.
It is curious but hardly surprising that in the coverage of the swine flu epidemic, the mainstream media seems to be overlooking the obvious. We have another free market failure on our hands and the costs to first contain and then clean up the mess at Granjas Carroll de Mxico is likely to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars while the total cost and economic disruption is likely to run into the tens of billions. Their failure, humanity’s bill."
"Too big to fail doesn’t just apply to the banks, it also applies to pig farming. Smithfield, by the way, produces one of every four pigs in the United States.
Update [2009-4-28 3:35:55 by Charles Lemos]: The UK Guardian is thankfully reporting on this story.
A La Gloria resident who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity yesterday described how illness swept through the village. "Some people started getting ill in February and an eight-month-old baby died," she said. "After that another baby died on 21 March. Suddenly most of the village got ill. It was weekend and the tiny clinic here was closed. The state health authorities then did send doctors and nurses to look after us, and give us medication. About 60% of the village were ill and we asked them what it was and they said it was a severe and atypical cold. We talked about influenza and they said that was impossible, that influenza had been eradicated from Mexico."
Smithfield, which is led by pork baron Joseph W Luter III, has previously been fined for environmental damage in the US. In October 2000 the supreme court upheld a $12.6m (8.6m) fine levied by the US environmental protection agency which found that the company had violated its pollution permits in the Pagan River in Virginia which runs towards Chesapeake Bay. The company faced accusations that faecal and other bodily waste from slaughtered pigs had been dumped directly into the river since the 1970s.
The outbreak of respiratory illness in the area of the Granjas Carroll plant was first detected at the beginning of this month by Veratect, a company based in Washington state which monitors the spread of disease and pandemics around the world for corporate clients.
On 6 April it reported local officials had declared a health alert. According to its dispatch: "Sources characterised the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to pneumonia in some paediatric cases. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population, approximately 1,800 cases, has been affected."
Local health officials established a health cordon around La Gloria and the monitoring company reported that officials launched a spraying and cleaning operation that targeted the fly suspected to be the disease carrier. "State health officials also implemented a vaccination campaign against influenza, although sources noted physicians ruled out influenza as the cause of the outbreak," it said."
Our secretary of agriculture is quick to defend Joseph Luter’s Smithfield Farms against the "mistaken" conclusion most of us will leap to.The danger we face now ,in his opinion, is that people might stop eating pork products from these factory farms.This would be bad news for Smithfield.But a new awareness that cheap pork, chicken and beef are not so inexpensive after all would be the beginning of that paradigm change that I am hoping for.
"Even on their own, infection with either influenza or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can lead to a grave situation. But now, health officials are keeping an eye out for an even more harrowing threat — simultaneous infection with both diseases. And they say that, in children at least, these cases of co-incident infection appear to be on the rise.
So far, what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has learned about the potential link between flu and MRSA in young patients is disturbing.
According to an official health advisory issued Jan. 30, between Oct. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007, the agency received a total of 73 reports of child deaths due to influenza. In 22 of these cases, the children were also infected with some form of the staph bug, mostly MRSA. "
"
Deadly Superbug Evades Hospital Screening
Flesh-Eating Bacteria: Is MRSA Spreading?
Flu Season Recap: Worst in 3 Years
And on Friday, the Boston Globe reported that Massachusetts health officials have linked MRSA to two recent deaths in children from the flu, renewing concerns over such a surge.
It is not the first time that viral and bacterial infections have gone hand-in-hand, notes Dr. Jonathan C. Weissler, chief of medicine at University of Texas Southwestern University Hospitals in Dallas.
"It is well known that community-acquired staph pneumonia is much more common in patients who have influenza," he says. "This has not changed."
But when it does happen, the results can be disastrous. Infectious disease experts say spikes in this kind of co-incidence of influenza and drug-resistant bugs have happened in the past, with devastating results even for many healthy individuals.
"The association of influenza viral infection disrupting the mucosa to permit secondary bacterial infection is not new," says Dr. Jerome Klein, professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. "This is what happened in the influenza pandemic in 1957, which was co-incident with a pandemic of multidrug resistant staphylococcal infections. Not only were the elderly and immunocompromised prone to the combination, but otherwise healthy individuals were felled with substantial morbidity and mortality." "
http://www.grist.org/article/meat-wagon-filthy-swine
"U.S. officials dither while antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains creep into our pork supply"
"Prepare to be outraged by the work of University of Iowa professor Tara Smith and veteran Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Andrew Schneider. Prepare also to give up industrially produced pork, if you’re still eating (or, even worse, cooking with) the stuff."
"Recently, though, a researcher at the University of Iowa decided to do what U.S. authorities have avoided: test U.S. CAFO-grown pigs for MRSA. Evidently, it wasn’t t that hard. Schneider reports that assistant professor of epidemiology Tara Smith and her team of graduate students merely "swabbed the noses of 209 pigs from 10 farms in Iowa and Illinois."
The results were unsettling: they "found MRSA in 70 percent of the porkers." Stunningly, this apparently marked the first-ever publicly released test of U.S. hogs for MRSA.
Now, the pork industry, no doubt fretting about how those 18,650 MRSA-related deaths might affect its bottom line, already has an answer: If you cook pork to the well-done phase, MRSA dies. So, if you catch it., it’s your fault — you didn’t follow proper cooking procedure.
That’s absurd, though. First, cooking pork chops to the cardboard phase won’t protect people who work with live animals or raw pork: those who toil on hog farms or in slaughterhouses. Indeed, Smith and her researchers also tested 20 workers on Iowa hog farms. Nine of them carried the same MRSA strain as the pigs. And MRSA is contagious, meaning it can move from workers to their families and broader communities.
Second, home cooks who handle raw MRSA-tainted pork are subject to risks that proper cooking can’t protect them from. "The main possible concern is that people could get MRSA on their hands from raw pork, then touch their nose. The nose is the prime site for MRSA to live," one researcher told Schneider.
Another possible path to infection is through cuts on the hands.
So why aren’t public-safety officials actively rooting out the causes of a menace that’s costing more lives than AIDs? My guess is that they realize that without heavy use of antibiotics, the meat industry — a multi-billion-dollar behemoth with friends in high places — would wither.
And the problem might not be limited to pork. A Canadian researcher told Schneider that "MRSA could also be in beef, chicken and lamb, but no one is checking."
The time has come for a federal government that places public safety above the needs of industry."
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points out that the virus is not food-borne and has nothing to do with consuming pork products.""
Tom Vilsack’s statement is intentionally misleading.We are not sure yet(although I suspect) that the virus can be contracted from the pork products.After all the accepted form of transmission is from body fluids(water droplets) transmitted through the air.Don’t pork chops contain pig body fluids?The virus just creates the conditions for MRSA to attack the lungs.MRSA can most definitely be contracted from handling raw pork products.Once the MRSA takes up residence in your or your cook’s nose,everything touched afterwards is potentially contaminated.
Joel Saladin 100% right on…Poly Face Farms and everyother organic grass fed operation proves it everyday.
It is the terrain, feed and the ecosystem conditions… and that includes your inner terrain and conditions. These Mexican pigs live in factory farm hell holes being fed antibiotics and grain to fatten. If man wanted to create a petri dish for weaponized bioterrorism ammunition this is the military training book on how to do it.
These are the end days for CAFOS and Germ Theory.
Support AB 416 ( Florez ) the CA Senate bill that will ban the use of antibiotics in animal feed. At the Senate hearings…. guess who showed up from DC to try and get the bill snuffed out…..the damned FDA and they sat with Big Ag and CAFO operators. The more I see them the more I see the devil himself.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0401-0450/sb_416_bill_20090422_amended_sen_v97.html
Mark McAfee
http://birdflubook.com/resources/HSUS-Human-Health-Report-on-U-S-Live-Bird-Markets-and-Avian-Influenza.pdf
The SARS virus is the model public health is using in this response (and presumably their emergency response plans). You may recall that scare a few years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome
The SARS outbreak was linked to civets (a farmed wild cat) sold in open, live markets in Asia; scientists discovered later that the likely origin of the deadly virus was bats, but civets were susceptible and provided a bridge to humans that came in contact with the live animals (cooking kills influenza and SARS viruses in animal meat – pork, chicken, or cat).
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0401.htm
Mark, seems like you should know that the findings during the early phases of a public health investigation are not proof of anything. Only later are the facts found (like showing the genetic difference between the DNA fingerprints of spinach and raw milk outbreak strains).
And no we did not follow Fords advise in 1976 so we had no adverse reaction from the vaccine nor did we get the "swine flu" so this time DW I will also decline their needles. But maybe we will drink some additional rich raw cream that the cows are now producing from the fast growing spring grass and boy does it taste good now! NO OUCH THERE.
"Sencer noted that one of the sick soldiers, Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass . , had died after leaving against medical advice to participate in a forced five-mile march at night, during which he collapsed. This death was forever cited as the fatal index case, suggesting a dangerous lethality "
It appears that tptb didn’t look at the whole picture., thus leading to poor investigation and fear mongering. I didn’t see information as to whether or not the recruit was in boot camp. If so his immune system would have been pretty strained to begin with, then to go on a "forced" march without fully recovering from illness will only tax the immune system more.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-history27-2009apr27,0,967115.story
"Army recruit at Ft. Dix, N.J., fell ill and died from a swine flu virus thought to be similar to the 1918 strain."
By calling the soldier a recruit, I would safely assume he was in boot camp. Without telling the whole story, the media along with tptb grossly distort issues. Bits and pieces of facts allow the teller to push fear mongering and lead ppeople to thier own agendas.
"More than 500 people are thought to have developed Guillain-Barre syndrome after receiving the vaccine; 25 died. No one completely understands the causes of Guillain-Barre, but the condition can develop after a bout with infection or following surgery or vaccination. "
Don, I am with you. Never had a flu shot and would rather take my chances with Mother Nature. She is more trustworthy. I have a friend in FL who developed GBS after recieving the flu shot several years ago. She walks with a cane now. Is this current swine flu a pandemic? It appears so, sustained in many countries and seems to be still spreading. It does appear that the start of this swine flu was in or around la Gloria,Mexico. Unhealthy living conditions for the animals leads to disease, doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out.
Thank you for making it very clear as to how pathogens multiply so quickly in the human body. Theyre smart little bugs arent they?
Also, I believe Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride was a speaker at the Nov. 2008 WAPF Wise Traditions conference. She promotes the use of probiotics, not raw milk. I guess you better call her and tell her shes wrong with the discovery shes made working with autistic children.even healing her own child.
http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/biokult.asp
cp
-Blair
Having considered the opinions of many in the health food movement including raw milk enthusiasts that later became ill, I think there is a disconnect about consumer perceptions regarding the safety of the food supply. Raw milk is a curious example because consumers are beloved to the product as a wonderous cure all, until they experience a serious foodborne illness like a child with HUS or a previously healthy person that develops GBS (then the lawsuits ensue, even against herdshares that they were presumably a part of). I’m not picking on raw milk, per se, but the public is confused and misguided thinking that their food won’t make them sick (especially a supposedly life-saving, immune building product like raw milk). And, the Bad Thing can happen whether they buy food at the Farm or the Farmer’s Market or Whole Foods or Costco or WalMart.
To quote the public health message for swine flu: this is a cause for concern but not a cause of alarm.
If this govt was truely wanting to contain this current pig flu, they would have shut down land & air travel weeks ago. They didn’t. How about if the govt just tell the truth and INFORM people at the start of potential outbreaks? How about banning cest pool s that are the by-products of confined/feed lots? An environmental bomb waiting to happen.
"On a smaller scale, when is it appropriate to stop distribution of raw milk (or peanuts, spinach, sprouts, pistachios) by recall and/or closing a farm or company during an investigation? "
Again, why wait months to INFORM people of an outbreak or potential one? The INSPECTORS KNEW the peanuts were contaminated yet they gave good marks? Yes indeed, we should trust tptb? Not in this life time. Do you think tptb can be truthfull about all foods potential for harm? Like all the chemicals added to the processed foods? The poor quality of processing and shipping and storing? Or the lack of hygiene of food processors? Do you think they will change the way things are processed so that the contamination is decreased?
I don’t see tptb working with the little guy.
http://www.5min.com/Video/Learn-how-Flu-and-MRSA-Create-a-Deadly-Combination-61458790
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/flustaph.htm
This is an official
CDC HEALTH ADVISORY
Distributed via Health Alert Network
Wednesday, January 30, 2008, 19:17 EST (07:17 PM EST)
CDCHAN-00268-2008-01-30-ADV-N
Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality and Staphylococcus aureus co-infection"
This is what separates raw milk advocates from "sheeple". We have disabused (great word – look it up!) ourselves from the belief that the government will protect us. As a former NICU RN, it took me a lot of research before I saw through their smoke screen of fear. One must be completely ignorant by choice or default, to rely on the FDA and state agencies for their health.
Ruth Ann Foster
Regarding Natasha Campbell McBride and Raw Milk…
I had dinner with her in Detroit during the WAP conference mentioned. I have also had long talks with her about her experience in Russia where she was trained as a pediatric neuro surgeon.
She does not mention raw milk in her work because there is little if any raw milk in the west and EU. In Russia however, raw Kefir and raw milk is found everywhere. It s common.
After discussions with her she said she would talk about the importance of raw milk in future work. She and I also spoke about the importance of fermented raw milks as being far better for the immune depressed and the gut impaired at least as a first step food. Raw milk is the second step after fermented raw milk.
Natasha is very supportive of raw milk when it is specifically produced as intended for human consumption. She told me that she wishes she had access to good raw milk in England where she lives.
Her opinions are mirrored by other Russians I have spoken with, like Ed Alpers, a scientist that works in Houston with the Russian Cosmonauts. He tells me that Russian space doctors strongly suggest drinking only raw milk or raw milk Kefir for all Cosmonauts.
Each and every Russian student that I have ever spoken with at the LA Farmers Markets have always insisted on raw milk. When I was in Russia in 1975 as a student, all I drank was Kefir and it was from raw milk ( that was 33 years ago )
CP….I am not so sure that your opinion about Natasha is accurate. I am impressed however that you know about her work. It is brilliant.
Mark McAfee
Jerry Ford strongly encourage all Americans in 1976 to get "their" swine flu shot. Jerry Ford never said he was sorry for the bad advise he gave that destroyed and riuned some peoples lives.
If you go to The Bovine Word Press web site {Michael Schmidts the Canadian raw milk farmer] scroll down to the article A Food System that Kills watch the 3 minute video 1976 Swine Flu it iwas a classic fearmongering TV ad.
Times Argus
Committee says it’s safe to let more "raw" milk flow
by Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau
Legislation would allow farmers to sell up to 40 gallons of raw milk daily.
"Milk prices for conventional dairy farmers have dropped precipitously and farmers are going out of business at an alarming rate" said Partridge D-Windham "This was an oportunity to boost their income" DOUBLE STANDARD??
HMMM not about safety not about raw milk but it is about CONVENTIONAL dairies!!!!
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090430/NEWS02/904300361/1003
Sure wish it would happen in my state… maybe it’s time to move to Vermont. heh
"Mexican health authorities raised concerns that waste from the Granjas Carrol facility of Smithmfiled near La Gloria may be responsible for the outbreak of the illness. The Mexico City newspaper La Jornada reported "According to state agents of the Mexican social security institute, the vector of this outbreak are the clouds of flies that come out of the hog barns, and the waste lagoons into which the Mexican-US company spews tons of excrement.".
50000 pigs? wow, I can imagine the stench. The above was posted by a responder to the story, I’ve read it elsewhere a few days ago.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu_name
‘Six of the eight genetic segments of this virus strain are purely swine flu and the other two segments are bird and human, but have lived in swine for the past decade, says Dr. Raul Rabadan, a professor of computational biology at Columbia University.’
"That’s not what government health officials say.
"We have no idea where it came from," said Michael Shaw, associate director for laboratory science for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Everybody’s calling it swine flu, but the better term is ‘swine-like.’ It’s like viruses we have seen in pigs, it’s not something we know was in pigs."
Here again are tptb outright lieing. To save a buck?
Expert Says Farm Isn’t Flu Origin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105320874371313.html#mod=rss_Health
Mexico’s top government epidemiologist said Wednesday that it is "highly improbable" that a farm in the Mexican state of Veracruz operated by Smithfield Foods Inc. is responsible for the nation’s swine-flu outbreak.
Miguel ngel Lezana, the government’s chief epidemiologist, said in an interview that pigs at the farm are from North America, while the genetic material in the virus is from Europe and Asia.
WHO to stop using term ‘swine flu’ to protect pigs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/un_who_swine_flu
GENEVA The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.
Dr. Natasha McBride has contributed valuable information to the autism world, along with many other amazing doctors who treat and heal autistic children. Our autistic children have extremely damaged immune systems. The thought of this vulnerable population using raw milk instead of probiotics to treat gut issues is frightening. This group of children would be completely vulnerable if the milk was contaminated with a pathogen.
Unfortunately, Joe Mercola is doing just that at the Autism-One conference.
http://www.mercola.com/Seminars/2009/Autism-One-2009.htm
I think Donna Gates young coconut kefir is a much safer option for this population.
http://www.bodyecology.com/coconutkefir.php
Raw milk is not the only way to get healthy bacteria into a persons system.
cp
You are absolutely right….raw milk is not the only way to get probiotics into your gut.
The eskimos never drank raw….but they ate plenty of raw fish and fermented fish and raw cod livers. These foods are not the kind of food that Americans can find at their local stores or farms or farmers markets.
This Eskimo diet was very high in bacteria, fatty acids, raw fats, minerals, omego threes and enzymes. Guess what….raw milk from grass fed: cows, goats, raindeer, sheep, camels, oxen, horses have the same elements. I choose delicious cows milk over raw fish livers or fermented cods heads any day. So my choice is raw milk…
It is your choice as well…it is a free country.
Kids do very well with Donna Gates Coconut Kefir…I agree. However, I know lots of kids with Autism that thrive on Raw Milk Kefir and then later raw milk. Donna Gates is pro raw milk…I know her protocol well and she is a raw milk supporter. I attended one of her first Body Ecology Diet seminars…In fact I was a featured speaker during the three day event in Atlanta.
I am not so sure why you are so stuck on issue of pathogens in raw milk. That seems to be a central theme to your raw milk bashing. If raw milk had been dangerous to civilizations…its consumption would have died out long ago. Instead, those civilizations that had raw milk thrived. Swiss, Massai, Russians, Mongols, Scotts, Danish, Balkans, Irish and the English all drank lots of raw milk. When they did not have raw milk they suffered.
My medicine comes from food….if you want to get your medicine from a pill, knock yourself out. It is a free country. At least that is a hope I have for our country.
CP….what do you say about three deaths from pasteurized milk two years ago…??? There have been no deaths from raw milk in recent recorded history. Please do not commingle raw cheeses into the raw milk data. Raw cheeses have a poor food safety history because of thermolization…they are not truly raw. Raw cheese from good quality raw milk is extremely safe.
Mark McAfee
Mark McAfee
Lykke,
I do want our government to stay abreast of health threats. But first I want them to promote good health, teach people how to build immunity, and craft laws that foster nourishing food and stop letting TPTB get away with murder. Isn’t nourishment the first law of life?
Their vision of health manifests primarily as a focus on disease. They gave us a food pyramid that makes people obese, and exhortations to Wash your hands! Cover your mouth! Stay home! Get a shot! …after the disease has already killed people. They allow over 2000 food additives that either cause or contribute to headaches, allergies, alzheimers, brain lesions, heart disease, autism, cancer and diabetes. They delay in pulling products off the shelf that kill, they refuse to grant license to products and eople that heal. They handcuff small farms that create health and subsidize big farms that destroy health. Department of Health?
I’m not sure it’s appropriate to shut down travel, raw dairies, etc. But it is appropriate to inform us where disease is, teach about symptoms and prevention, and provide suggestions for alternative methods of travel (or safer ways to bottle milk). I’d rather see them in a helping role, rather than a controlling role. If they supported small local farms, and options for alternative healthcare (Nature’s antimicrobials – like garlic and coconut oil – against which bacteria cannot develop resistance, herbal and homeopathic remedies, sunshine, exercise, sleep, etc), instead of always pandering to Big Ag and Big Pharma, the flu would never have gotten to this point, because immune systems would be strong, and disease would be contained to small areas.
We’ll never get rid of disease, but we can minimize the damage, keep it local. This global greed has ruined our banks, our cultures, our freedoms – and now, our health. I have lost all respect for our government’s limited knowledge and authority, and weak as mine is, it’s kept me healthier than theirs. Let me decide when to travel or what I eat.
-Blair
I did not read the bill yet but if interested read HB0720 at.
http://www.capitol.tn.gov
Milk, Dairy Products – As introduced, authorizes an individual who owns a cow or goat to sell raw milk produced by such animal to a person who has a prescription from a physician prescribing the consumption of raw milk for such person; requires the person selling the milk to keep the prescription and make it available for inspection by the department of agriculture if the prescription is for an extended period of time.
Wow, now farmers are Farmacists!
Thanks for bringing that to our attention I feel a bit foolish for not checking it out completely never dreamed it would be such as it is. Sorry. Guess I expected to much from these "adults.